Do BumbleBee Snails (Engina mendicaria) eat feather dusters?

SauceyReef · Apr 10, 2023

Steve and his Animals · Apr 10, 2023

I wouldn't be surprised, as people tend to use them to limit vermetid populations, they seem to be good at eating stuff that lives in tubes. Doubly so if the feather duster wasn't healthy in the first place.

SauceyReef · Apr 10, 2023

Steve and his Animals said:
I wouldn't be surprised, as people tend to use them to limit vermetid populations, they seem to be good at eating stuff that lives in tubes. Doubly so if the feather duster wasn't healthy in the first place.

Online sources are saying they do not eat feather dusters. Seeing some posts to back this up. Just wanted to get advice / experience from anyone here if they have it.

Steve and his Animals · Apr 10, 2023

SauceyReef said:
Online sources are saying they do not eat feather dusters. Seeing some posts to back this up. Just wanted to get advice / experience from anyone here if they have it.

I mean going off of what people say is one thing, but thinking about the nature of the animal is another. It's a predator, and a snail at that. Snails, even the supposedly herbivorous ones, are very opportunistic. Just some thoughts.

SauceyReef · Apr 10, 2023

Steve and his Animals said:
I mean going off of what people say is one thing, but thinking about the nature of the animal is another. It's a predator, and a snail at that. Snails, even the supposedly herbivorous ones, are very opportunistic. Just some thoughts.

I am looking at any information I can find - not just forums/experience. Trying to combine collective research/info to get the best possible idea. It is tough to balance the removal of vermetid worms vs the possible death of ornamental feather dusters or other snails. Specifically because I want to add feather dusters in both the tanks I want to add Bumble Bees (vermetid problems). It may have to be one or the other though..

I think the fact there is a non reef-safe look alike gives the reef safe Bumble Bee snails a bad name. I personally wouldn't call the reef-safe bumblee a "predator", but a omnivorous scavenger. The two Bumble Bee snails in my fluval evo have never been caught doing anything wrong. In fact they barely move much at all for the 2+ years I have had them.

Steve and his Animals · Apr 10, 2023

SauceyReef said:
I am looking at any information I can find - not just forums/experience. Trying to combine collective research/info to get the best possible idea. It is tough to balance the removal of vermetid worms vs the possible death of ornamental feather dusters or other snails. Specifically because I want to add feather dusters in both the tanks I want to add Bumble Bees (vermetid problems). It may have to be one or the other though..

I think the fact there is a non reef-safe look alike gives the reef safe Bumble Bee snails a bad name. I personally wouldn't call the reef-safe bumblee a "predator", but a omnivorous scavenger. The two Bumble Bee snails in my fluval evo have never been caught doing anything wrong. In fact they barely move much at all for the 2+ years I have had them.

I call them predators because they are meat eating snails. The meat doesn't have to be alive for them to want to eat it.